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Fires, Explosion, Violent Attacks and a Justice Probe Strain German Emergency Services

Rescuers evacuated and treated residents in Essen and Düsseldorf as police advanced investigations in Bad Kleinen, Bamberg and Stuttgart.

Overview

  • An explosion in a homeless shelter in Düsseldorf-Oberbilk on Friday evening left one resident lightly injured, forced a shutdown of the building’s gas supply, displaced occupants to other facilities and drew roughly 80 firefighters, with police probing the cause.
  • In Essen-Steele overnight Saturday, firefighters rescued ten people by ladders from a smoke-filled apartment house, sent five residents to hospitals for suspected smoke inhalation, reported one injured firefighter and declared the building temporarily uninhabitable.
  • After a fatal stabbing at a snack bar in Bad Kleinen, a 37-year-old German suspect was arrested and is accused of manslaughter, and prosecutors moved to place him in a psychiatric facility due to suspected diminished or absent criminal responsibility.
  • Investigators searched offices and homes tied to the Stuttgart prosecutor’s office in a corruption and secrecy-leak probe linked to May shootings in Tamm, with seven staff under suspicion and arrest warrants issued for one employee and two alleged instigators.
  • In Bamberg, a father who allegedly detained and assaulted two youths after his 16-year-old son was robbed faces a hostage-taking case, with an arrest warrant issued and suspended under conditions as police secure evidence and review video footage.